Underwater homeowners and hundreds of allies barricaded the front door of the Department of Justice building Monday afternoon to protest the “too big to jail banks” who have shirked punishment despite having destroyed “homes, savings and livelihoods.”

Organized by Occupy our Homes, Home Defenders League, Campaign for a Fair Settlement, along with a number of community and faith leaders, the group held a sit-in outside the government building.

“Banks stole our homes so we’re moving in to the #DeptofJustice,” the protesters announced on Twitter. The protest included the positioning of two couches before the doors of the DOJ.

“Today we have taken over Eric Holder’s house. We’re sick of the banks taking over our house.”

The race is on in to raise money on public capital markets for the latest big thing in real estate: renting out single-family homes.

Waypoint Homes Realty Trust Inc., a new company formed under the aegis of Oakland, Calif.-based Waypoint Real Estate Group LLC, announced Tuesday that it plans to raise up to $100 million in an IPO on the Nasdaq, under the ticker “WAY.”

Waypoint would be the fifth single-family rental landlord to file in the last year with plans for an IPO.

Grassroots pressure helps MN passes nation’s strongest Homeowner Bill of Rights (Occupy Homes MN)
After a year and a half of on-the-ground anti-foreclosure organizing with homeowners publicly standing up and fighting the banks’ abuse, the Minnesota legislature passed the Homeowner Bill of Rights almost unanimously–61-1 in the Senate and 123-0 in the House. National analysts are calling this legislation the strongest Homeowner Bill of Rights in the country…